Product Description

You have a picture in your head. A picture of yourself with your practically perfect dog. You’ve always preferred big dogs, and your ideal dog is sturdy, strong, and energetic. At the same time, you envision a dog who is gentle and completely in tune to your needs, your whims, and your every move. That perfect dog is likely a Labrador Retriever. After all, the Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog in the United States, according to American Kennel Club registrations. Labs are beautiful, friendly, adaptable, easygoing, brave, loyal, dependable, and intelligent. What could be better?

Labrador Retrievers For Dummies is a useful guide to have if you're thinking of getting a Lab or even if you already own one. Perhaps you're just curious about this popular breed. This handy reference is for you if you want to

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12625 in Books
• Brand: for Dummies
• Published on: 2000-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 7.00" w x 1.00" l, 1.20 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• Lighthearted but not lightweight, Labrador Retrievers for Dummies shows you how to prepare your home for a lab puppy, socialize and train your pet, and much more
• Written in a down-to-earth style featuring cartoons, illustrations, reference lists, and more

From the Back Cover
"Buying this book is the smartest thing you can do." Ian Dunbar, Ph.D., author of How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks Praise for Labrador Retrievers For Dummies® "I recommend this book to any dog owner who wants the real scoop, not just Lab enthusiasts." — Jean Donaldson, author of The Culture Clash and Dogs Are from Neptune "I wish [this book] had been available 25 years ago when I bought my first Labrador." — Kate Fulkerson, Ph.D., Labrador breeder and trainer

Find out about your Labrador Retriever's special needs

Get the lowdown on keeping your dog healthy and content Labrador Retrievers are versatile, serving as family companions, hunting buddies, guides for the blind, service dogs for the physically challenged, and drug-detector dogs. This fun and friendly book gives you expert advice on Lab temperament, shows you how to train your dog to be a well-mannered companion, and much more.

About the Author
Joel Walton (Prince Frederick, Maryland) is a professional dog trainer and has worked with Labs for over 40 years.; Eve Adamson (Iowa City, Iowa), a reular contributor to Dog Fancy magazine, is also the author of Dachshunds For Dummies and Labrador Retrievers For Dummies.

Customer Reviews

Not just for Labradors...a "bible" for all dog breed owners
As a Certified Dog trainer, I have read and own many training manuals and reference books. Joel Walton's and Eve Adamson's book is one of my favorites. Labrador Retrievers for Dummies is not just for Lab owners. It is a most wonderfully written *soup to nuts* owning, training and management "bible" for any dog breed owner. I suggest many books to my cients, this being one of the top three.

Written so the average dog owner can clearly understand what owning/caring for and training a dog is all about,not only makes Labrador Retrievers for Dummies an enjoyable read, but makes training your dog EASY, POSITIVE AND SO REWARDING. There is no "behaviorese" to decipher and this book thoroughly enables you to understand how to turn you relationship with your pet into "only a good thing!"

Great Book, Interesting Philosophy
My wife and I read this book before deciding we wanted a lab. It is well organized, follows a nice progression, and is very well written. Above all, Joel and Eve's love of labs shine through. At first I wasn't sure if I could trust a "Dummies" book, but this one at least is excellent. Joel espouses lure and reward training and he sold me on it via this book. If you believe in punishment training you may not enjoy the book quite as much. If you are considering getting a lab or have a puppy we found this book to be a great foundation. After reading this book, we wanted one of Joel's labs.

Good Book for Labs for Pets
This is a well-written book that would be a good starting point for new labrador retriever owners who are getting their dogs as family pets and are not familiar with basic training techniques. I'd recommend it for anyone who has never trained a dog before, or for one who is not familiar with the more gentle training methods that have become popular over the last several years (because they work!). It serves that purpose very well, even though some readers might find that their "warm and fuzzy" approach goes a bit far. Suggesting that you give your dog a body massage, for example, may seem a bit much for some ... or a great idea for others.

In fact, probably the biggest strength of this book is that it is a solid pet training resource for all breeds. It could easily remove any mention of labrador retrievers and still hold up well.

Perhaps because one (both?) of the authors is a professional dog trainer, the authors are quick to advocate hiring a professional trainer for your dog. They also suggest that busy working people obtain the services of "dog sitters" to take care of the pup during the day. While this may end up being very good advice in some cases, perhaps a better approach is to not buy a labrador retriever in the first place--unless you have the time and open space to train and maintain that sort of dog. Unless you are in the financial position of being able to employ a nanny for your puppy, having to hire an obedience trainer and/or daytime dog sitter is usually the desperate outcome of making a bad decision in selecting your pet. These dogs need to spend time outdoors and time with people.

This is not the best book to buy if you have any intention of hunting with your dog or training it for field trials. There are a couple of very good books on the market that focus particularly on that sort of training. Check around for those.

Although it is a relatively small gripe, the biggest fault that I found with this book is that the resource lists are not very robust. They seem to have been tossed in by the authors (perhaps to fulfill the "formula" of the publisher) as an afterthought. It gives the impression that the authors imparted their own expertise freely, but only grudgingly tossed in a few scraps of information from other sources.